End of the Line for Mirage-Treasure Island Tram on Las Vegas Strip

Posted on: June 27, 2024, 03:43h. 

Last updated on: June 28, 2024, 09:08h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Myths.

The free tram from The Mirage to Treasure Island has carried its final passenger.

This two-car tram, shown in 2005, shuttled 50 people back and forth on a 90-second journey from The Mirage to Treasure Island from 1993 until very recently. (Image: nycsubway.org)

The two-car people mover now sits locked up at the front of The Mirage, part of the iconic resort’s preparations to close its doors forever on July 17. At the other end, Treasure Island has boarded up and walled off its tram station and removed all signage directing guests to it.

Though a sign at The Mirage refers to the tram as only as “temporarily” closed, and neither Hard Rock International nor Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin has made any official comment on the closure, the tram isn’t expected to restart once The Mirage reopens as The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas in May 2027.

Frankly, it’s surprising that it didn’t close back in March 2009, after Ruffin purchased Treasure Island from MGM Resorts, which at the time also owned The Mirage.

That’s because short trams between resorts typically only operate when those resorts share an owner, which is why Steve Wynn opened this tram in 1993. At the time, he owned The Mirage and had just opened Treasure Island in one of its former parking lots.

Otherwise, as a resort owner, why would you want to make it so easy and free for your guests to leave your property and patronize someone else’s?

In fact, MGM Resorts, which purchased the two resorts from Wynn in 2000, attempted to connect this tram to its ARIA Express Tram — which operates between the Bellagio, Vdara, Park MGM, The Shops at Crystals, and ARIA — via an extension in 2009.

Its plan was blocked by rival resort chain Caesars Entertainment, which wouldn’t permit the tram to cross through Caesars Palace.

At just 1,000 feet long, the Mirage-Treasure Island Tram was the shortest of three short, self-contained trams on the Strip. (We’re not counting the Las Vegas Monorail as a tram.) The ARIA Express Tram is 2,034 feet long, while the tram connecting the Luxor, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay measures 2,749 feet.

It’s unclear when the tram’s last day of service was.